"It’s 2012, and these statements about rape, abortion and sex are actually really energizing for their opposition--they pull middle-of-the road voters away from the group they see as “extreme” and toward Democrats, who seem more reasonable, understandable and moderate on social issues. So why does ill-advised stream-of-consciousness ranting continue?"
"1. They really and truly believe this stuff. (They also don’t believe in the considerable evidence that refutes it.)...(A) sturdy link between anti-choice advocacy and misogyny also explains why so many casual, women-hating comments come out of the mouths of these guys. This is their doctrine, their bread and butter. Also, these are the same people who don’t trust things like facts and figures. They deny the realities of climate change and fight the teaching of evolution--so the science on women’s health is hardly going to convince them.

"2. They’re emboldened by the Tea Party and the war on women...The extreme, socially conservative, right-wing faction of the GOP used to be kept somewhat at bay by the Washington insider, fiscally conservative faction. Not so anymore. The Tea Party has allowed all of the uglier ideas that used to be swept aside, from racist birther conspiracy theories to those other theories about legitimate rape into the light. And it isn’t pretty.

"3. They’re in denial about the dangers women--and all of us--face . It’s no coincidence that Akin's “legitimate rape” comment and Joe Walsh’s absurd claim that no pregnancies can be medically life-threatening are classic examples of making up facts to suit a preexisting argument. Mourdock’s comments, on the other hand, are another kind of denial, a paper-thin religious assurance that the bad things that happen are part of a plan. The reality is twofold: first, issues like rape, incest and life-threatening pregnancies are the kinds of complexities that make the case for legalized abortion for all women, because each person’s case and situation is different, because we can’t stand in each other's shoes.

"Second, however, mainstream liberals have been too quick to turn to these examples of dire situations to justify abortion. "But rape and incest and life of the mother!" we cry. When we move into that territory, they do not cede it to us--they attack us on it. So now rape victims are being targeted. We shouldn't be surprised. Instead of acknowledging the real dangers and complications in our lives, right-wingers invent made-up terrors that rob women of agency, like abortion providers who operate on women who aren’t even pregnant, a particularly bizarre myth.

"4. They haven’t been punished by voters yet. The Tea Party swept in in 2010. The war on women began in January 2011. There has been no ballot-box pushback against this ideology yet, and it’s unclear whether there will be a strong enough effort to send a message that such statements, and the policy that goes with it, is not okay. But what we’ve witnessed is two years of an assumed mandate, in which extremists with little regard for women’s social equality have felt empowered to say whatever comes to their minds."

This is the reality that we all face should the Republicans once again seize power over the three branches of our government. The harm caused by the Republican-dominated Congress under Truman and the Reagan and Bush years is still with us, and are the means that our democracy has deteriorated since post-World War II.And this is the key to this year's election: the only way to eliminate these Conservative neanderthals (this term is deliberately used) from our society is to vote them out of office and remove them from the airwaves and our local governments. Vote not only to re-elect President Obama, but vote for any Democrat running for any office; kick the Conservatives out of your local governments, your state assemblies, your children's school committees. The Conservative pestilence is real and will continue to infest us until they are eradicated from our political system once and for all.

"Love is, in fact, an intensification of life, a completeness, a fullness, a wholeness of life."

Thomas Merton (Anglo-American Catholic writer, mystic, and Trappist monk of theAbbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student ofcomparative religion. His best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948),sent scores of World War II veterans, students, and even teen-agers flocking tomonasteries across the US. 1915 - 1968.